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Prayer is the place we can entrust our deepest needs and hurts, fears and anxieties, longings and disappointments, and most especially our questions, to God.
For over 25 years Proverbs 31 Ministries' mission has been to intersect God's Word in the real, hard places we all struggle with. That's why we started this podcast. Every episode will feature a variety of teachings from president Lysa TerKeurst, staff members or friends of the ministry who can teach you something valuable from their vantage point. We hope that regardless of your age, background or stage of life, it's something you look forward to listening to each month!
Meredith Brock:
Well, all right friends we are excited to get to spend some time today with our friend, Wendy Blight. Welcome to the show, Wendy.
Wendy Blight:
Hi, thanks for having me. As always, love being here.
Kaley Olson:
Well, we love having you Wendy, and this is not our first-time hearing from you. We've done a lot of episodes with you. But for those of you who are new to the show I'll just say this —Wendy is a wise woman who loves the Lord, and that's very evident in her life. But I know, what I know about her is that she loves studying the Word, she loves teaching the Word. And I believe one of the gifts that the Lord has given Wendy is a beautiful way of connecting with Him through prayer. And she's one of the people that God has used in my life to reach out when I needed it most, to let me know that God put it on her heart. I think some people in the Christian world call that like a Godwink, I've never used that terminology. But it's kind of like whenever you just need to know that God hears you, He puts people in your life. Wendy's that lady, and Wendy I know as a Bible teacher you get asked a lot of questions.
Kaley Olson:
But specifically, a lot of questions about prayer and how you so clearly hear from the Lord and are able to reach out to people. And kind of be a voice and a sign that God is hearing them whenever they need it most. And so today I believe you're here to address two of those top questions, and so Meredith and I can't wait to hear what you're going to share with us today.
Wendy Blight:
Yeah, thanks, Kaley. And before we jump-in I really just want to say I love this podcast, doing our P31 Podcast. Because y'all really listen to our friends and our audience. And you care what questions come in and what they want to know about, and so I just thank you for that, and I just, we are so blessed to have all of the people who listen to us that come and listen.
And, thank you just for being very discerning about that, and I'm excited to talk about prayer today because it's one of my favorite topics as you said to teach on. And I'm really excited to address these two questions that we talked about because I get asked them a lot. But before we jump-in, I have three just introductory comments to say about prayer that I think will give us a good foundation. And the first one is, prayer is an activity, right? Some people call it a spiritual discipline. Some people call it, I like to call it, a holy habit. Sounds less you know, formal. But God invites us to prayer. And in some places even in Scripture — we'll talk about this later — He commands us to pray. But He's filled scriptures from Old Testament to New [Testament] with prayers so that we can have models on how to pray. But also, so that we can watch God work through people's prayers, in the Word of God, so we'll know how to watch Him work in our lives. So that's the first. Second, prayer is one of the most personal ways that we can engage with the Lord, because it deepens our relationship with Him. It helps us understand Him better, but prayer feels, I think, can feel very awkward and uncomfortable, right? Especially if you're just sort of beginning to learn how to pray. Because you're praying to someone you cannot see for sure and most of the time you can't hear, and prayer is undefined and intangible, really. I mean, we're praying for things a lot of times beyond our understanding, things that are outside of our control. And because of my personality relinquishing control to someone I can't see or hear or feel sometimes is really, really hard. But what I've learned through the years is that prayer is so much more than what I learned growing up. I grew up saying two prayers: prayers before dinner ... The same rote prayer before dinner every night and the prayer before I went to bed. I'm just going to say it because I can't believe my parents had me pray this but, “Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.” That's what I grew up praying. So as a little girl I'm lying in bed going, “I am I going to die before I wake?” Like that is a terrible thing to pray every night before you go to bed. So a lot of my young adult life I have to say I avoided prayer, and I think a lot of people can relate. First of all because I felt like God was too busy, like He’s running the world. He doesn’t have time for my prayers. I also feared the disappointment that would come if I didn't get what I answered.
Wendy Blight:
Then, is God really who He says He is? Can I trust Him? And I also worried that God graded my prayers. Because the older you get you hear other people that pray so much better than you do and sometimes, every now and then, even though I've been teaching on prayer and stuff those little thoughts can creep in still. But what I now can tell you is the more I committed myself to prayer to spend time with it, to understand it, the easier it became. And the easier it became the more vulnerable I was. I was willing to be more vulnerable with God because I learned that just because He didn't answer my prayer it didn't mean He didn't care and He didn't love me. So it was worth risking entangling my heart with His because I grew to trust Him more — and we'll get into that later. But Sylvia Gunter is this expert woman on prayer and she's written a prayer workbook called Prayer Portions, and this was the definition of prayer that changed everything for me and I will never forget it. She said, “prayer is radically and gloriously encountering God. Knowing him better, loving him more.” That prayer is all about a relationship with God. It's that His true intent for prayer is simple. It's just to know Him better and love Him more. And in that relationship growing then the rest of prayer just begins to come. So that is … we've learned that prayer is an activity, and it's one of the most personal ways to engage with God. And then finally prayer is, the place where in a world full of worry that we can entrust our deepest needs and hurts; fears and anxieties, longings and disappointments, and most especially our questions to God. He's the one that can take the burden off of us and put it on Him because He's really the only one who can carry the things that we're carrying. And so that …. And prayer also leads us to those things that we seek so much. Let's say we're looking for comfort or peace or direction, or we just want to feel God, we just want to know He's there — that's where we're going to find it, is through prayer. So those three things were sort of the foundational things that I wanted to start with. So let's go to our first question. So, what does God's Word tell us about prayer? Because that's the best place for us to learn how to pray, right? So the Bible has a lot to say about it. So we're going to focus on two things right now, and we're going to go to Colossians 4:2 first because there scripture teaches us how to pray. There's what it, what Paul says here is to devote ourselves to bold prayer.
So Colossians 4:2 says, “Devote yourselves to prayer…” (NIV) And in the original Greek language that word “devote” is pros-kar-tereo. OK, I'm not going to spell it but I just thought it would be fun to hear that in the Greek language. But it means to continue steadfastly. To persevere; to persist in; to be constantly diligent. And that word “devote” as written by Paul in this verse is a command. It's not an invitation. It's a directive from God to be diligent and persistent in prayer. Paul uses a similar word in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 where he says, “pray without ceasing …” But to me I always love to go, what does Jesus say? And in Jesus’ own words He also instructs us to pray with diligence. And one of my favorite places to find this is in Luke Chapter 11, and y'all know I love Bible study. So we're going to do like a little mini-Bible study here today and this is a famous chapter, OK. Because it's where Jesus is praying with His disciples and when Jesus is done the disciples say, “teach us to pray …” (Luke 11:1b). OK, so that's where we hear the famous “Our Father who art in heaven …” (Luke 11:2, KJV) It's the Lord's Prayer, but we're not going to focus on the Lord's Prayer today. I like to call that a recipe for prayer, kind of gives us a formula to follow. But we're going to go to the parable that follows that prayer, OK. So we're going to be in Luke starting Luke Chapter 11 starting in verse 5. And if you're not familiar with a parable, it's just a simple way Jesus would teach. It's a comparison. So He would place a story alongside a Truth that He was wanting His disciples to understand or His audience to understand; and then sometimes he'd tell the meaning of it but sometimes He wouldn't. Here we're going to read first verses 5 and 6. Luke 11, if you have your Bibles, but if you don't, don't worry because I'm going to read it. “Then Jesus said to them, here's the parable, ‘Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend lend me three loaves of bread; a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food for him.’ And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can't get up and give you anything.’’” (Luke 11:5-7, NIV) All right, Kaley I thought of this story with you and me. OK, so I'm going to give this … I'm going to take this more sort of personal. But let's say Kaley's my neighbor and my family and I have gone to bed. We've turned the lights out.
And Kaley gets a knock at the door and someone comes to her house. And she remembers her fridge is empty, her cupboards are bare — she has nothing. Well, in Jesus’ day and time, hopefully still today, we're hospitable people. But in Jesus day and time you would never turn someone away and you would always feed them a great meal. So Kaley says, “Oh Wendy is a great cook she always has stuff in her house. So I'm going to go over to her house.” So she knocks on my door and shares her little story. And I'm not sympathetic or hospitable, because my lights are out, I'm tired, I've gone to bed. Everyone knows that, so I tell her to go away. Now, listen to Jesus’ words in verse 8 that tells what the neighbor in this story did. The neighbor in this … Jesus says, after Kaley asked, Jesus says, “‘I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of your friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need’” (Luke 11:8, NIV). So in our story Jesus is saying, “I didn't give Kaley the food because we were friends, I gave her the food because she was driving me crazy. She wouldn't stop asking for food." And that word “audacity” in Greek, it's more than persistence, OK. It's unembarrassed boldness. It's shameless. It's, it's to keep on asking, praying with a bold and daring faith. And so here that principle on how to pray is so important that we need to realize our need for God. And God wants to ensure we know that we come to Him with our need, like Kaley went to our neighbor, and that we just keep on asking and we pray with shameless boldness, because He's the one who can provide. So that's how we, that's how we pray. That's our first way. But then Jesus tells us what to pray. So this is our second one: what to pray. In the very next verse, after our parable, Jesus uses three words to tell everyone how to pray, and they're — ask, seek and knock. And so here's verse 9, “‘I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.’” (Luke 11:9, NIV) Here's the answer: “‘For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and the one who knocks the door will be open.’” (Luke 11:10, NIV)
So when we're faithful to ask, seek and knock, we're going to receive, find and encounter open doors. In other words, He's saying, “when you pray, I'm going to be faithful to act,” OK. So that's a promise, He'll be faithful to act. But the way we're going to pray — there's two ways that we can pray here — we can pray feeling led prayers or faith led prayers. This is what makes a difference with the ask, seek and knock. So we're to be led by faith and not our feelings. What's the difference? Feelings led prayers are led by our emotions, OK. And they always will change. And feeling led prayers will diminish when we pray led by that over time because their results focused. We’re always — based on our feelings — praying for the results that we want, OK. Now, faith led prayers are led by the Holy Spirit; who lives inside of us, who is constant and doesn't change. So Spirit led prayers will most often not diminish our faith, but will increase our faith even when we don't get that result that our emotions are looking for. Because we trust in God and not the result. And that comes over time, that comes over time in praying, but praying faith led prayers is very important. Because y'all we may not receive the answers, the specific answer we ask for. We may not get the specific thing that we ask for. God may not open the exact door that we're asking for. He's going to open a door but it may not be the one we ask, and the prayers probably are going to not be answered in the timeframe that we want. So as long as we begin to develop this relationship with God over time through prayer, and we're going to get into this in the next section, how we can develop that trust that we're hearing God's voice, but I just want to tell you my experience here — is the more you commit to pray the more you'll see God at work in your prayers. The more you see God at work in your prayers the deeper your faith will grow that will help you pray more and more of those faith led prayers.
And the deeper your faith grows the more you're going to ask, seek and knock and you're going to anticipate seeing and hearing God at work in your prayers. So that's one answer to the first question. Now, we're going to go into this, how do we hear God's voice in the next section. How are we going to know that He's, that’s who we're hearing in that conversation. So most of us honestly, this is question two, if prayer is a two-way conversation, how do we know that we're hearing God? Most of us are never going to audibly hear God's voice. Every now and then, even I've had an experience, but it's very rare where I felt like I heard God's voice but it doesn't mean He's not speaking. Because honestly, sometimes we aren't listening and we aren't watching for that, or we don't know how to listen and watch. And that's what I'm hoping to help you with today. That's what I've learned through the years. Because God is always speaking to us, but it’s very creatively and you have to kind of look for it and listen for it. So one way to do it, is through His Word. And honestly, it's the best way to do it. It's through scripture, because when we draw close to Him this is where He speaks the most. But He also sometimes has circumstances happening around us that if we're listening and watching for what we're praying for, we're going to be invited into some circumstances where we're going to receive an answer to our prayer. And I'm going to give you a really solid example in a little bit. And other times there's what the Scripture will call sort of this “still small voice” (1 Kings 19:12, KJV). And to me those are what Kaley was talking about at the beginning like when I just like God put her name on my heart, and so I had a verse or a prayer and I sent it to her. I had no idea what she was walking through I didn't know she needed it. He just laid her name on my heart and she was just stunned because she needed that. That's that still small voice. So I wish I had a perfect formula I could say how to hear God's voice, it's a mystery. But I can tell you ways we can do that, ways we can … But I want you to think about think about your really closest friend right now and let's say you were standing in line for popcorn in a movie theater. And you heard a voice behind you, and you knew in that moment it was Meredith. You know Meredith's voice, right Kaley? You know her voice right behind you. You didn't even have to turn around — that's God. If we're in His Word then we're going to know His voice. That's the best example I can give you.
But, you're not going to know the voice of our new employee, who started two days ago at Proverbs, but you'll know Meredith's voice. So that’s to me, spending time in God's Word is probably the best way to connect your heart with prayer with God. So I'm going to close us with tips on prayer. That's how we're going to spend the rest of this time, because this is the way, I'm hoping through these tips … And please know they're not rules. They're not regulations. They're helpful guidelines to help you deepen your prayer life. And the first one I can tell you is, to pray specifically. Because the more specific you pray the more likely it is you're going to receive your answer. And what I mean by that is you're going to see God at work. The second tip is, pray expectantly. And that's that watching and waiting and anticipating, look for God at work in your prayers. So if you are in Scripture look for a verse that might come across your path that's an answer to your prayer. Or if someone that you know just lost someone they love and you get this, a verse in front of you about comfort then you have something you can send them. But I always say, in all of these, “show me Lord.” That's my prayer. “When I'm in Your Word, show me Lord.” Secondly look for a change in your circumstances. If you're looking … My son was looking for a job to move back here and literally a door opened, and it was like “OK, God if this is right give me affirmations.” And He had one after the other, because He's saying, “show me Lord if this is right.” And finally, you can be listening to worship lyrics; you can have a mentor; you can have a prayer partner; you can be in church and your pastor says something, that's another way to just be listening. Have open ears listening to hear from the Lord. So that's two. Then this one is going to take the longest because when I say the word “journal” I don't want you all to like go away now because you're like I don't journal. OK, when I say the word journal, it can be writing in a notebook. It can be putting notes on your phone. It can be note like a flip note cards. But this is a place if you can journal in a notebook or somewhere write down the things that you're praying about that day or that week and then when you receive a verse when you receive an answer go back and put it in there, because those are the things where you're recording what God is doing. And that's when next time you're praying and it's a really hard space you can go back and remember His faithfulness.
So here's my best example, and I love it because it's a two-way example, and it's very practical. My daughter is now 28, but when I sent her off to the University of Georgia when she was 17 years old, I was so worried about her faith growing. So I gave her a devotion book and I also said, “Whenever you need anything will you just promise you'll call me to pray.” And so that's what I told her. Well, during a specific example during her second year … now this is how long ago this was, she's 28, right. So during her second year at Georgia, she was in like an honors program and she got a really bad exam, a bad grade on an Economics exam. So she had another one to take, so she text me and she said, “Mom, I have a huge exam tomorrow would you please, please pray for me.” So I just texted her back a really fast prayer because I was in the middle of watching one of my favorite shows so I was like, oh OK here we go. I’m sorry but sometimes that’s just what you do, right, as a mom. And then, but not two minutes later the Lord put this verse on my heart — Proverbs 3:5 and 6. And I had it memorized so I knew what it said. I knew Lauren knew the verse and so I just texted it to her and after the text I said, “Please …” Oh I'm sorry, let me tell you what it says. It's, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths.” So I text that to her and afterwards I say, “I pray this encourages you and gives you confidence that you have studied and you're prepared so walk in confidently.” And y'all the next morning I woke up, after her exam, she immediately sent a text and this is what it says, “I opened my devotion book today and today's Truth was Proverbs 3: 5 and 6 the exact verse you gave me.” And in these big letters, I wish we had a video and I could show you, but it says “encouragement.” So remember I prayed specifically for encouragement. Y’all, she walked into her exam with peace and confidence and just the end of the story is she did really well on the exam. But why I like this story is it shows both sides of our story. For her, my daughter knew to pray when she needed something, right? And she knew to reach out to me because I had said, “Please reach out to me.” So she saw clear evidence of God at work by not just answering her prayer, but how creative was that to give me the verse that showed up in her little devotion book that she had on the very day she needed it.
So, but for me, because y'all I journal, that's why I could come back to you all these years later and share this story with you. Because I just can't tell you what a comfort that is to go back years later, or to show, I can show my kids now verses where I've prayed things for them, and now they're adults and I go, “Do you see how God's been faithful to the prayers I prayed as a mama when you were five?” So prayer is so intimate and so beautiful and I just can't say it enough. But, so OK, so we've talked about pray specifically, pray expectantly and journal. The rest of these will go pretty quick. The next one is, confirm what you hear lines up with God's Word. God will never tell us to do something contrary to His Word. OK, never ever, ever. He … But how can we know if something's contrary to His Word if we don't know it? So once again, this just points you back to being in the Word of God, and so that's huge. The next one is, seek God's confirmation through friends. Through mentors, through your pastors. Maybe you're in a Bible study at church and you've got friends there. Your husband, your best friend, your family whatever, just look for confirmation. Ask people to be praying for you and see what they hear from the Lord. And then be willing to trust God in the wait — this is the last one — and that's the hardest. And I'm just going to be honest, it's really hard to wait. But my pastor's wife calls it "the wait room,” the w-a-i-t room rather than the lifting weight room. But that's the place y'all where He speaks, where He ministers, where He convicts, where He redirects. And so we need to keep our eyes not on the result because we're looking at the results we're going to miss all of this and miss the precious work He does in here, in our hearts. Oswald Chambers says, “the idea of prayer is not to get answers from God. It's perfect and complete oneness with God.” And doesn't that remind you of Sylvia Gunter where she says, “it's radically and gloriously encountering God. Knowing him better and loving him more.” And I miss that part of prayer sometimes because I sometimes just so want the answer I ask for. So look for God in the wait. Ask for grace in the wait. Don't just want to get to the other side because in the wait, and I wrote this down so I want to say it right, “in the way we learn that our relationship with God is not dependent on getting the results we want though that's great. It's more about relinquishing our will in order to join God in His, and he'll use that time to change our hearts to align with His.” And that's a big concept. So as I close today, I want to encourage you, we learned today to devote ourselves to unceasing bold faith-filled prayers, that's number one. And then number two is just to wait and watch and anticipate and look for Him to be at work, and then record and celebrate what you see. Even if the answer isn’t what you asked, I promise you, you will see a way to celebrate the Lord in the way He's worked through your prayers. So thank y'all so much.
Meredith Brock:
Wow … Wendy, that honestly probably one of the best teachings I've ever heard on prayer. The most clear and concise teachings I think and really helped bring some clarity.
I’m going to tell you, you're not going to believe this, even in the scripture that you used in Luke 11 I had never … I went to bible school. I have a bachelor's degree in Biblical Studies. I had never read that verse or at least it had never really registered until probably three months ago and God used you today to remind me of that verse for something that I have been praying for that is happening tomorrow. So no kidding the same thing that happened with your daughter look at how He does it. Look at how He places these little moments to remind you, “No, no, no I see you. I heard your prayer, I'm with you; keep asking.” You know don't give up, so I just wanted to pause and encourage you even in the recording of this podcast — He's answering. He's hearing and answering our prayers. But I do have a question for you, that oftentimes I wrestle with a lot when I'm praying.
Meredith Brock:
That feels … it's just hard. It's a hard question. OK, so prepare yourself, you know me enough to know I sometimes play devil's advocate a little bit —
Wendy Blight:
Yeah, go ahead.
Meredith Brock:
— this this is a little devil's advocate, but it's because I know I wrestle with it, so I'm going to assume our listeners are wrestling with it a little bit too.
And that is, I loved how you broke down this idea of faith-based prayers versus feeling-based prayers. That oftentimes the feeling-based prayers really are, and I admit it oh my gosh all day long, they are … I want a result. I really want a certain outcome to happen and so I'm praying to that end. And I'm saying, “Lord I want outcome X, please can I have outcome X. I think this is in alignment with Your will, I don't see how it couldn't be. Can you please give me outcome X?” You know, at the same time I hear you saying, and I think it's accurate, but it feels a little bit in opposition that's different than having a faith-based prayer, which really is choosing to trust God with those outcomes and so I think that sometimes can feel an opposition to praying specifically.
You know, whereas like I think these two feel conflicting. How do I not have results-based prayers, but also pray specifically? And so I’d love for us to, I know you unpacked it a little bit,
but like even giving an example for me. This is an example that I have or a way that I think I have learned to pray to help myself wrestle through this tension, is more along the lines of like “OK, Jesus I really am longing for outcome X and I really want it. And I believe that you can do it. And I am asking you — what is the word that you used — unembarrassedly —
Wendy Blight:
Yes, shameless.
Meredith Brock:
— but I have faith in who you are and I am giving this up to you.” Is that how you kind of see that walking in that tension of I have these feelings they're not going to go away, you know. I want this outcome, how, what does that look like? Give me a kind of a practical example of what that wrestling.
Wendy Blight:
OK, so I have a, I have a really practical hard example. OK, and I'll try really hard to not get emotional. But I have a relationship in my life that has always been difficult. So difficult and painful. And now there's a time in my life where now there needs to be — and it's never been answered the way I've asked, never not in all these years — and now the time has come where I need to be in relationship with this person more because of circumstances. And I went to my counselor that I've had over the past couple of years and she said the Lord gave her this word for me, compassion.
And she said, “You need to pray for compassion, because things are not changing but you need to pray for compassion. If you can pray for compassion, trust Jesus with the rest.” And she goes, “Don't just pray for it, when you go to the Bible look up compassion see where Jesus shows it, all this stuff. And Meredith I did that, I did that and I'm telling you I am now engaging with this person a lot because I have to, and it's been so beautiful because it's like all the angst and all the pain was never resolved and it's still over here. But it's amazing what God can do with that one word of compassion. That it's not erased, but it's like you know what, it's there and I'll take care of that but I need you to just have compassion now. And it's working and it's beautiful.
And it's one encounter at a time, with no expectation of anymore, each time I have this encounter with this person. But every time God has been faithful to give me all I need and to give me, to receive things good things too that are shocking me that I didn't even pray for from this other person. So I wish I could be more detailed but I can't, but I hope you get the idea that my prayer has not been answered and still has a little bit of that over here but because I so knew I needed to serve in this way, He gave me that word compassion. And I hate to use the word, “it worked” because that sounds bad but it is. It's beautiful and it's nothing but the grace of God.
Meredith Brock:
I think that's honestly, Wendy, that's a perfect example because you said it, and I think our listeners need to hear this: Y'all the feelings aren't bad. We're not telling you to stop having the feelings. They're not just going to poof go away. Don't push them down.
What we're saying is bring those feelings to the altar and say, “Lord, I don't … these are real and I don't know what to do with them. And in my physical body and in my physical mind I am desiring for outcome X. This is what I want and I know that you could do it. But if it doesn't come in alignment with Your will help me know what does and help me pursue what does.” And so I just want our listeners to hear like we're not saying don't have those feelings, have those feelings and bring them to Jesus for Him to contend with them. Because He may not give you the outcome that you in your physical body and in your physical mind desire. He will give you what is better and what is good, which oftentimes means a change of heart.
Wendy Blight:
Yes, and what's necessary for what needs to happen in that situation or relationship. And what I prayed for y’all was good. It was healing and wholeness and unity and those are good things. But those are two-way party, you know there's two people and so one that you both have to want it. So if the other person isn't doing that, I need to be the one to change, and the only way I could change was to do that. But it doesn't take away those feelings, they're still over there. I still long for that, I won't give up for that. But He gave me enough for now to be able to serve and do what I need to do.
Meredith Brock:
That's so good. So good. Kaley, I know you had a question.
Kaley Olson:
Well, yeah, I did. Well, you actually answered it. So I've got another follow up. But what my question was going to be is, what are those ways that we can measure how the Lord is increasing our faith, because that seems like a very like biblical term to hear, but Wendy you just answered that. You answered it by saying that God gave you a word for you to focus on and change your heart, and I think that if the Lord is increasing our heart there's no way for us to not see that it's changing. And that's a way that we can see that our faith is increasing. So my question is really for the woman who is listening to this right now saying, “I have tried prayer, I am so broken about what my situation is. This sounds wonderful, but I'm ready to throw in the towel.” So, what do you have to say to her and how does she start when she doesn't know how to start?
Wendy Blight:
Gosh, you know that's such a big question because I, I really, I think my very best way I always tell anybody is to, just open God's Word and start reading His Word anywhere, somewhere you can go. And just say, “Lord, speak to my heart, minister to me where I am.” And if you're reading it and you're … and just know if you're not, it’s not getting an exact answer there's healing and there's goodness and there's knowledge that comes from reading your scriptures. So that's the first thing. But the second thing I want to say is most of the time when I talk to women like this, they haven't really kind of started … If you're in that broken of a situation, I want to encourage you to really do get a notebook of some kind. Write down all the hurts that you have, put them down, say them and say to God … you need to get this out. You know what I'm saying?
And then go back, go Google the words that, if it's unforgiveness, if it's bitterness, if it's fear whatever you're struggling with, go Google those words. Find yourself some scriptures, go to those places in scripture. Read what's around them. But honestly, it's really a wrestling with you and the Lord. And if all you do is pray, pray, pray God hears that absolutely. But there's, I don't have my Bible right next to me but I want to hold it up and tell you, this is where His healing. It says in scripture, “My word is health to your body and healing to your bones.” (Proverbs 3:8) And I, I literally have a friend whose son he is on trial for murder while she's recovering from breast cancer. So those two things are two of the hardest most, unimaginable things. But I've watched her broken for months and all of a sudden, we had her in the Word and we were praying, we were writing we all those things and slowly but surely God began to give her words and it's been beautiful to watch her. It's just that's what you've got to have, you've got to write your stuff out, or speak it out and you've got to be in the Bible. Those are the two things I would say the most. It's work. It's hard work, prayer is work.
Kaley Olson:
Yeah, yeah. I know that it is and I know that one of the things that we asked you to do today, whenever you came on to teach, was to close our time together in prayer and so I'm going to invite you to do that. And then after that for our friends listening hang tight because we've got a couple of announcements after we go. So Wendy, why don't you pray for us.
Wendy Blight:
OK, yeah. Father, thank You for the gift of prayer. I'm so thankful You don't hide from me. Thank You that You are never too busy for me. It's Your desire to meet with me and to speak to my heart. I want to engage with You, I want to know You better. I don't want my prayer time to be religious — something I do every day, Lord. I don't want it to be another item to check off my to-do list. Father, give me a heart devoted to prayer. Give me a heart of unceasing prayer, praying bold powerful effective prayers that bring results that will glorify and honor You and You alone. Your Word will bring that power and effectiveness so daily feed me Your living and active Word. Bring it alive in my life so I can recognize it and see You at work in it through my prayers. And when it feels hard to hear You remind me that You are there. You are listening. Give me a heart quick to come to You and not to look first to other people or myself for answers. Give me ears to hear that are always listening and eyes that are eagerly watching for Your handiwork. And may my feet always be willing to follow You wherever You lead. Father, I want to come boldly before Your throne. When I come, I trust You will meet me there and while I'm there make Your presence known in tangible ways. Be at work in my prayers. Father, show me Your glory, I love You so much. And I want more and more and more of You. I ask this in Jesus' Name, Amen.
Meredith Brock:
Amen.